Belize to Host FIBA AmeriCup 2021 COCABA Championship Qualifiers

The Belize National Basketball Team was formally introduced this afternoon at the Marion Jones Sporting Complex, ahead of the 2021 COCABA Championship to be played in Belize City this weekend. The roster of twelve athletes was selected last week, following several workout sessions with prospective players. The team is being led by coach Milton Palacio who has represented Belize in several regional tournaments. Secretary General Julian Murillo, of the Belize Basketball Federation, says that while the country does not qualify for an outing to the World Cup of Basketball in 2019, it has a shot at making it to an upcoming continental cup should the team come out on top this weekend.

Julian Murillo

Julian Murillo, Secretary General, Belize Basketball Federation

“We are here to talk about the FIBA AmeriCup 2021 COCABA Championship which will be held in Belize from this Friday, July twentieth to Sunday, July twenty-second. A bit of a background on FIBA and the international tournament that we are about to enter. FIBA has three major international tournaments, the first is a world cup which is similar to the football world cup that we just witnessed and the world cup for this cycle will be held in 2019. There have been qualifying play over the past two or three years for teams who are participating in that world cup. Belize is not in that world cup qualifying rounds at this point in time. The second major international tournament that FIBA holds are what are called the continental cups and this FIBA AmeriCup that we are about to enter now is actually a continental cup. This will end in 2021 and we are now entering round one of that process, similar to football world cup it takes a while to qualify as you go through different stages. So this is our first maiden voyage in quest of that FIBA continental cup for the Americas. The third major international tournament that FIBA holds is quite new which is now called the Olympic qualifying tournaments. The next Olympics, as we all know, is due to be played in Tokyo in 2020 and what will happen a few months before that is FIBA will be holding an Olympic qualifying tournament.”

Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.